ARBOR DA Y MAXUAL. 365 



Specimen Programs. Port Henry, X. Y. Continued. 



DEDICATION EXERCISES. 



1. CHORUS. " Plant the Trees, Children." Air: " Ring the Bell, Watchman." 

 A chorus of over four hundred voices. 



Round the green plav-ground the dear children When you are old you may bask in the shade 



stand, \Vhich by the growth of this planting is made. 



Joy in their faces and shovel in hand. Your children's children, so Heaven decrees, 



Waiting a word to be borne on the breeze Will rejoice you heard the summons : " Plant, plant 



Ready for the welcome mandate: " Plant, plant the the trees." 

 trees." 



CHORUS. 



Plant th f tree* rhilHrpn nlant ve<? nlant Plant trees of knowledge where ignorance reigns; 



When having passed to the happier land. 



Fast by the " Tree of Life " joyful you stand, 



Gladly you'll learn how the Master decrees 



Earthly' planting blooms in glory ; " Plant, plant the trees." 



2. Reading Letters and Short Sketches of the Laves of those to whom Trees were 



Dedicated. Pupils of the High School. 



Trees were dedicated to George Washington, Francis Parkman, Joel T. Headley, 

 Benson J. Lossing, Will Carleton and Donald G. Mitchell. 



[From Francis Parkman, American Historian.] 



BOSTON, April 26, 1889 



DEAR SIR I am much obliged to the pupils of the schools under your direction for 

 their intention to dedicate a tree to me on Arbor Day. I could wish for no more pleasant 

 form of commemoration, for a tree is the most charming of monuments. 



I hope your Arbor Day will be a great success. We once had on this continent such a 

 superfluity of trees that our forefathers almost learned to regard them as enemies rather 

 than as friends. If the present generation does not quickly learn to take a different view, 

 the country will have cause to rue it. If the State and National governments do not pre- 

 serve with care the forests about the sources of our great streams, including your admir- 

 able Adirondack country, the regions watered by them will be the victims of alternate 

 floods and droughts. It is not only the beauty of the landscape that will suffer, but many 

 industrial interests will be sorely injured, and the more this is impressed on the minds of 

 the rising generation, the better it will be for them and their successors. 



Yours respectfully, 



FRANCIS PARKMAN. 



[From Joel Tyler Headley, an American Historian.] 



NEWBL-RGH, X. Y., April 26, 1889. 



DEAR SIR I am glad to see that the Superintendent of Public Schools in Port Henry 

 takes such a warm interest in Arbor Day. I am sure he will infuse the same enthusiasm 

 into the scholars and make the first Arbor Day in New York a grand success, and one 

 long to be remembered. 



The conception of an Arbor Day was a happy inspiration in Mr. Morton, and I have, 

 ever since its first establishment, taken a deep interest in its first observance. 



The love of trees in itself is elevating, but when they become links between scholars 

 and authors, men distinguished for the good they have done, they awaken pleasant asso- 

 ciations and establish pleasant memories that cannot fail to help form character. Arbor 

 Day recognizes the fact too often overlooked, that education does not consist merely in 

 imparting knowledge, but in cultivating the taste, in making good impressions on the 

 heart, and arousing the best and purest feelings, and in giving sympathies a right direc- 

 tion in short, in developing the whole character harmoniously. 



It is pleasant to know that there are children in Port Henry who will make a tree a link 

 between me and them, and cause them to think of me when Arbor Day comes round in 

 succeeding years, even after I am dead. Very sincerely yours, 



JOEL T. HEADLEY, 



